Object-based navigation (OBN) is a way of navigating between components of a complex system, such as a business management system. In such a system, a user accesses functions and components of the system via applications that display instances of business objects. As a specific example, an application provides a user access to an order management system, where selecting a field or other navigation element displayed in an instance of a business object, such as a customer, order, or contract, allows a user to view and manipulate information about that business object instance. By accessing an instance of a business object via an application, a user manipulates information stored in a business object, for example by viewing and modifying outstanding orders within an instance of a sales orders business object.
Generally, when a user selects a field in a business object instance, the user navigates to a different application. The target application displays other instances of business objects, where the instances and business objects displayed are the same or different than those displayed in the first business object. FIG. 1 shows a navigation process in a system implementing object-based navigation. A source business object instance 120 within a source application 110 may display fields 121 and 122. These fields may be, for example, customer names, account numbers, or other information. Each field may be a business object instance. When a user selects a field 122, he may navigate to a target application 150. A field or instance of a business object may be displayed in multiple views and applications. A field displayed in an application may be an instance of a business object, or it may be part of the business object instance displayed by the application. In FIG. 1, a second source application 130 is shown that provides user access to a second business object instance 140. The second business object instance 140 may display fields 141 and 122. The applications 110 and 130 may be the same applications, with the business object instances 120 and 140 being different, or the applications 110 and 130 may be different applications and the business object instances 120 and 140 instances of the same business object. Similarly, instances of different business objects may display some of the same fields. For example, in FIG. 1 the business object instances 120 and 140 may both display the same field or instance 122.
When a user selects a field displayed in a business object instance, he may navigate to a new application, business object, or both. In FIG. 1, when a user selects a field 122 in the first source application 110, he navigates to a target application 150 displaying an instance of a target business object 160. The target business object may also display fields 161, 162 allowing for further navigation. As shown in FIG. 1, a user will navigate to the same target application 150 regardless of the context in which the field 122 linked to the target application 150 is selected. That is, the source applications 110 and 130 and source business object instances 120 and 140 may be very different applications or business objects semantically, but the same target application 150 and target object instance 160 are displayed regardless.
As described above, in an object-based navigation system the target application is the same regardless of the context in which the field was selected. There is therefore a need for a system and method allowing for navigation to different applications in an OBN system based on the context in which a field is selected.